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48 www.CNC-West.com CNC WEST April/May 2018 T ony Martindale has been in manufacturing his whole life. After college he worked at the NUM- MI plant in Fremont, Ca. NUMMI was the joint venture between Toyota and GM, after the NUMMI plant closed it re-opened to manufacture Tesla Vehicles. He moved from there over to Cisco, but always wanted to own his own business. “I have a degree in industrial technology with aMaster’s inNewBusiness Ventures and Startup’s,” tells Tony Martindale, owner of San Marcos, Ca. based Martin- dale Manufacturing. “The goal was always to have my name on the door of a manufacturing business, but when I began my search it wasn’t aimed specifically as CNC machining.” Tony came across a business that was for sale in San Diego County. It met all his requirements and just happened to be a CNC machine shop. “The previous owner was set to re- tire after being in business for almost two decades,” explains Tony. “The company was tiny and profitable and came turn key, so my wife and I sold our house in the Bay Area and headed south to begin Martindale Manufacturing.” Sunny San Diego sells itself, and 15 years later Martindale Manu- facturing is thriving in their So-Cal location. AS9100 certified Martindale Manufacturing mills aero- space components, specifically seals that go on planes, he- licopters and rockets. They have hundreds of part numbers for numerous customers, but all the parts share similar characteristics. The parts are a thin flat metal carrier that the customers mold rubber to creating a seal. “Think ma- chining sheet metal and that’s what we do,” explains Tony. “Sounds kinda weird, but the metal is so thin that we have to make custom vacuum fixtures to hold the material in place.” Thickness in material varies, but ranges from .025 to .125. Some of the pieces are made from stainless or titanium, but 90% of parts machined by Martindale Manufacturing are made from various flavors of aluminum. After the grooves are cut, they machine out the part’s final shape. It then gets deburred and maybe part marking or anodized before be- ing sent our customers. “Most of our parts are a connec- tion point where hoses might come together,” details Tony. “Our parts go on commercial, military, planes, helicopters, missiles and even get launched into space. Where ever you need a seal on something that flies. We have no set sizes or quantities. It could be one or it could be fifty, but rarely is it more that a few hundred.” Sizing too varies by customer and application. It is not uncommon for Martindale Manufac- turing to have a 1”x1” running on a Fadal 4020 while a 4’x4’ carrier is being machined on the Fadal 6030. NEW FADALS BOOST PRODUCTION, ACCURACY, AND REPEATABILITY MARTINDALE MANUFACTURING Article & Photos by Sean Buur Tony Martindale